Wednesday, April 25, 2007

AND THE REST OF THE STORY: We've already reported that former WKYC/3 sports anchor Andy Baskin starts pinch-hitting in the WEWS/5 sports department Friday, which is now officially down to one person ("The Overworked Sue Ann Robak") on-air after the departure of anchor John Chandler.

What we haven't reported yet may be just as interesting.

OMW hears that upon the departure of sports director Chris Miller - now happily at Comcast SportsNet in Washington DC - a sports anchor previously seen filling in elsewhere in the market has been trying to get back on the air.

Charlie Minn.

Yes, that Charlie Minn.

In perhaps the strangest stint ever for a TV personality doing an extended audition for regular work, Minn had many heads shaking as a fill-in sports anchor on CBS affiliate WOIO/19's "19 Action News". (And really, working at Reserve Square, you have to DO something to make people think you're odd.)

The animated sportscaster was best known for his throw-it-against-the-wall schtick. We remember him wadding up paper and throwing it at the camera for some reason.

In the end, despite support from former Cleveland Plain Dealer sports/media columnist Roger Brown, Minn didn't catch on, and WOIO hired David Pingalore out of Pennsylvania...who, of course, is headed for Orlando FL.

We don't have an inside pipeline into the WEWS general manager's office, but all the rumblings we're hearing elsewhere out of 3001 Euclid would indicate that Mr. Minn shouldn't expect a return call any time soon.

So, perhaps Cleveland has been saved from Charlie Minn - again...

SINGLE SPONSOR: WKYC/3's "Director's Cut" blog, a regular link to our left-hand side, notes a local TV first of sorts.

It's been done on the network level, including on "NBC Nightly News". But the local NBC affiliate tried a single sponsor newscast locally for the first time Tuesday:

Tonight at 6 PM, WKYC launched its very first - single sponsor newscast in the Cleveland television market. Ohio Savings Bank, which changed its name to AmTrust, on Monday bought the entire 1/2 hour of Channel 3 News to bring you a virtually uninterrupted newscast.

It's actually harkening back to early TV days, where entire programs on a daily basis were brought to you by a sole sponsor...

SPORTSTIME OHIO'S PLACEMENT: The Cleveland Indians' SportsTime Ohio now has full-time placement on a number of systems, most notably Time Warner...where STO airs now on cable channel 76 on the "legacy" Akron/Canton TWC system, and on channel 17 on the Cleveland-based system formerly owned by Adelphia.

But at least one viewer is left to wondering.

We got a note from a subscriber to TWC's Norwalk system, telling us that he hasn't seen STO in the mornings at all.

We don't know how far the "full-time" progression has gone for STO, even on favored cable partner Time Warner.

We do know that Tuesday night, after the Indians' game with the Minnesota Twins, all forms of STO went dark on the Cleveland-based TWC system - analog 17, digital 179, and even HD 798, which at times has been left "up" even after the game ends. (Tuesday night's game was not in HD, since it was in Minnesota.)

Instead of "Outdoors Ohio" with venerable Cleveland outdoors media personality D'Arcy Egan, we were treated to What It Looks Like Outdoors With No Stars In The Sky.

STO is switched out of the WKYC "Digital Broadcast Center", so maybe Mr. Macek will have an explanation on his blog...

Someone let me know if I recall this correctly, because I was a little boy at the time.

It seems I was told that the single sponsor newscasts of old were criticized for journalistic reasons. That it gave the single sponsor at least the appearance of having control over the news.

And I do remember people scoffing when CEI was either sole sponsor, or almost the sole sponsor of Channel 5's news (might have been in the 1980's).

With more than one sponsor, none of them pays enough of the ad money to call the News Director and make demands with respect to the content of the news.

Even if that's not really happening, it creates the appearance that it could happen, and causes some viewers to watch with suspicion. (Would Channel 5 run news that embarrasses CEI if the utility is the only sponsore?).

Does anyone know anything about that, or did I just misunderstand how things happened?

When Salem first put Mike and Mike in the mornings on WKNR, the board op who intro'd the local traffic, read the Wx and a station promo was an amateurish, juvenile-sounding person with a slight speech impediment and tendancy to try and sound like "Joe-cool-announcer". He kept insisting on saying his name at least twice per break, "This is EDDIE Mularz".

It was nothing much to mention until Roger Brown referred to him as a promising young sportscaster deserving of a break.